Today, European Movement UK has launched the petition for the UK to join the EU single market.
For six years the UK has been outside the European single market, our largest trading partner and closest neighbour. Being outside it has been a catastrophe for our businesses, with more unnecessary trade barriers, more checks, more paperwork, more delays, lost investment, lost growth, lost jobs and business, and a divergence of rules and standards from the world’s largest trading bloc.
Businesses across the UK are speaking more loudly than ever and, hand-in-hand with them, our message to the UK Government is clear: it’s time for the UK to join the EU’s single market.
To deliver the economic growth we need to fund our public services, we need, and are calling for, a full reset of our economic relationship with Europe. We are calling on the Government to:
- Seek to join the single market and customs union.
- Ensure any negotiated arrangement includes the restoration of freedom of movement.
- Include small and medium-sized businesses in future engagement with the European Union.
Together, we can make sure that the Government takes the voice of British business seriously at the negotiation table.